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Shouts from the Wall
Exhibit documents the Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War, fought on the eve of World
War II, has largely been forgotten in this country-remembered mainly
today as the setting for Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Yet it is considered one of the most important revolutions of modern
times. This past fall, Shouts From the Wall: Posters and Photographs
from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), an exhibit at the Tufts
University Gallery at the Aidekman Arts Center, documented the war
that inspired a generation of artists and writers.

Highlighted in the exhibit was the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade, a group of 3,000 Americans who went to Spain to fight on
the side of the legitimately elected Republican government against
Franco and his fascist forces. One-third of them would lose their
lives by the end of the war. The travelling exhibit, comprising
items from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives at Brandeis University,
included original posters that were used to garner support for the
Republicans, photographs (including the notorious photo by famed
war photojournalist Robert Capa of a Spanish militiano being thrown
back as he is fatally shot), and letters home from some of the members
of the Brigade.

The exhibit was made possible by the generosity of
the Prince of Asturias Fund, established at Tufts for the study
of the Iberian Peninsula. In conjunction with the exhibition, Tufts
hosted a symposium: "On the 25th Anniversary of General Franco's
Death: Rethinking the Spanish Civil War," organized by Jose Alvarez-Junco,
Prince of Asturias Professor in the Department of History. Leading
scholars from the U.S. and abroad attended the bilingual sessions,
which included topics such as The Military: The Africanistas and
the "Other," The Franco Dictatorship in a Historical Perspective,
and The Church: Regalismo and the Franco Regime. At the close of
the symposium, octogenarian Abe Osheroff, a member of the Abraham
Lincoln Brigade, shared his experiences. His documentary, Art in
the Struggle for Freedom, which addresses the role that the visual
arts, poetry and music played during the war, was shown on a continuous
loop in a video booth at the gallery. The gallery also held screenings
of films about the Spanish Civil War, including Tierra y Libertad
(Land and Freedom-A Story of the Spanish Civil War) and the 1943
version of For Whom the Bell Tolls, starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid
Bergman.